Karnataka - Bangalore   

SBI, associate banks officers’ strike tomorrow

Bangalore: Officers of the State Bank of India and its associate banks across the country will strike work on Monday, protesting against the recent merger of the State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) with SBI.

The decision to strike work was taken jointly by the Officers’ Federation of the State Bank of India and the Associate Bank Officers’ Associations.

G.D. Nadaf, general secretary, All-India State Bank Officers’ Federation, said more than 80,000 officers of SBI and its associates were likely to participate in the strike, which will affect more than 15,000 branches and offices countrywide.

About 6,000 officers of the SBI Group in Karnataka were likely to participate in the strike, he said.

Mr. Nadaf said the SBI management had “misled the Union Cabinet by making the wrong claim” that the merger proposal was acceptable to the unions.

“In fact, associations representing officers in the SBI and its associate banks had opposed the move from the beginning,” Mr. Nadaf pointed out .

Mr. Nadaf said the claim by the Government and SBI management that the move would enhance the size of the bank “is frivolous”. He pointed out that the balance sheets of the associate banks already figured in the SBI Group’s balance sheet.

“The merger will, on the contrary, result in the closure of a large number of branches, which will affect the flow of credit to interior and rural parts of the country,” he said. “The merger is the first step in the hidden agenda of privatising the SBI,” he said.

Mr. Nadaf said the SBI management “has been trying to influence officers in the associate banks by offering them superannuation and other benefits if they agreed to the merger of associate banks with the SBI.”

He also said the management had misled the Government by stating that the SBS was a weak one.

“In fact, the SBS was a profitable bank, whose Non-Performing Asset portfolio (bad loans) position was better than that of the SBI,” he added.

Officers of the SBI and its associate banks have planned to hold a demonstration at 10.30 a.m. at the State Bank of Mysore compound here on Monday.

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